aword from oneworld: September 2006

19 September 2006

Paperless ticketing links well advanced with three alliance recruits: All three of oneworld's airline recruits - Japan Airlines, Malév and Royal Jordanian - are on track in their preparations to join the alliance early next year, in particular in implementing interline e-ticketing (IET) with their prospective oneworld® partners, enabling passengers to make connections between flights using electronic tickets only.

oneworld has since April 2005 been the only alliance with IET between all its member airlines, enabling passengers to make transfers throughout the group's network without having to recourse to traditional, losable paper tickets.

The alliance requires all new recruits to offer its full range of services and benefits from the day they become members.

Bringing the three new carriers on board will entail a total of 27 IET connections. Thirteen of them have already been implemented.

British Airways and American Airlines have now completed IET links with all three of the airlines lining up to join the alliance, while Malév has become the first of the newcomers to complete IET links with all of oneworld's existing members.

JAL already offers IET with five of the alliance's current members - American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN and, most recently, Finnair. Royal Jordanian in August achieved its very fist IET links - with its oneworld sponsor British Airways and then American Airlines.

Nuremberg to become oneworld's eighth destination in Germany: An eighth city in Germany is joining the oneworld network next year with Finnair launching services to Nuremberg. It will serve the new destination, in the country's region of Bavaria, from its Helsinki hub from April with daily non-stop Embraer regional jets, providing smooth connections to the airline's extensive Asian schedules.

Destinations in Germany already served by the alliance include: Berlin (both Schonefeld and Tegel), Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hanover, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. Nuremberg takes the network served by oneworld's existing eight carriers to 608. That will expand by almost a hundred Japan Airlines, Malév and Royal Jordanian join the alliance early next year.

American Eagle spreads its wings across seven new routes: Affiliate American Eagle, the regional carrier in the American Airlines group, has launched six new routes - between Chicago O'Hare and Columbia, Greensboro and Jackson, and on Dallas/Fort Worth-Harrisburg, New York LaGuardia-Jacksonville and Raleigh/Durham-Columbus. The carrier will also add a second route to Canada's Halifax, from New York LaGuardia besides the established JFK service, with dailies from 14 December. All destinations were already on the oneworld network. American Eagle is also increasing frequencies on a number of its Caribbean routes from its San Juan hub from December.

Iberia increases Brazilian frequencies: Iberia is adding another three frequencies a week between its Madrid hub and Brazil, giving a total of 17 a week, further strengthening its position as the leading carrier between Europe and Latin America. The airline has already doubled its Brazilian capacity in the past six months by adding more flights and using larger aircraft. In April, it added three returns a week to Sao Paulo. From later this month, it will increase the schedule with another two services a week, giving 12 in total. Last month, it added a fifth weekly frequencies to Rio de Janeiro.

oneworld in brief:oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business - American Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, LAN, Finnair and Aer Lingus, plus their dozen affiliates. Japan Airlines, Malév and Royal Jordanian will join them early next year.

The alliance enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges. oneworld is the only alliance to enable passengers to fly throughout its network, on any combination of carriers, using just electronic tickets.

oneworld was voted the world's best airline alliance by readers of Business Traveller magazine for the second year running in its 2005 poll and the World's Leading Airline Alliance for the third year running in the latest World Travel Awards, based on votes cast by80,000 travel agency professionalsfrom more than 200 countries. It is also the only alliance whose members reported collective profits in their latest full year.

Note: LAN affiliates LAN Ecuador and LAN Argentina are not members of oneworld.